This Is Not Happening
by Amberlin
Summary: The beach scene from the movie but with a twist.


This is not happening. Maybe I should pinch myself. I heard that somewhere, that if you pinch yourself while dreaming that you'll wake up. I'd really rather pinch him though.  
  
Actually, kicking him seems more satisfying.  
  
I mean, here we are stuck on this god-forsaken island and he's not even trying!  
  
"You've been marooned on this island before! We can escape in the way you did then." I scream at his sashaying back, following his footsteps in the sand.  
  
He swings around on me unexpectedly, "To what point or purpose young missy?" Did he just call me missy? "The Black Pearl is gone and unless you have a rudder and a lot of sails in that bodice of yours, unlikely, young mister Turner will be dead long before we can reach him."  
  
He strides away from me again and I fight the urge to plead with him. Does he even care? But then again, why would he? This is the same man that was going to forfeit Will's life to get his boat back.  
  
What the bloody hell was he looking for anyway?!  
  
I watch with growing annoyance and desperation as he knocks, for no apparent reason, on one, two and then three palm trees and sighs loudly.  
  
"It's not here."  
  
I throw my hands up in exasperation, "What?"  
  
He strokes the small patch of hair on his chin and seems to take no notice of my presence.  
  
"Maybe we're on the wrong side."  
  
I spin around dramatically in an effort to figure out what he's looking for. "Of course were on the wrong side. I should be at home! Not on this sodding island. And you should have died here a long time ago! Maybe then we wouldn't be in this mess!" He regards me now with an unreadable expression. I feel a slight pang of guilt at my callous words but also a little fear at the thought of pushing him too far. He was a pirate after all, he could only be easygoing to a certain extent.  
  
Instead of losing his temper though, he simply turns on his heel and strides into the thicket of trees farther up the beach.  
  
I follow at a close pace, fighting desperately to understand why he didn't seem to want to get off the island. He couldn't possibly think it was impossible because he'd done it before, hadn't he?  
  
"How did you escape last time?"  
  
Silence.  
  
I start to grab for his arm to stop him, even invade his personal space if it was necessary to get a reaction from him but I feel my heart freeze as I catch a glimpse of something moving out of the corner of my eye.  
  
Jack must have sensed that I had stopped following him because he also comes to a standstill, though he keeps his back to me.  
  
I see the thicket moving to my right but I'm too frozen with fear to look at it directly, my insensibleness also keeps me from calling to Jack for help.  
  
"You're a little off the beaten path young lady."  
  
The movement has a voice.  
  
I pivot my head slowly to see what I assumed had to be an apparition. A man stands in my peripheral view. His graying hair flies into his warm black eyes and an unexplainable familiarity creeps into my consciousness.  
  
The pirate in front of me also turns and faces the newcomer, his jaw slightly agape.  
  
The mysterious figure smiles kindly, "You two must be lost or stranded. If you're looking for food, there is none."  
  
I realize now that this man was very much real and human. I finally find my voice, "Where did you come from?"  
  
The man's eyes are no longer on me though. His gaze has met with my dirty companion and locked.  
  
I turn to look at what is so exciting about the pirate. The fey and smirking demeanor is all but gone, replaced with a look of utter shock and even a little fright.  
  
Jack backs up as the man approaches slowly, his eyes squinting as though trying to see something on Jack's person that no one else could.  
  
The younger man continues to retreat until his shoulder hits the trunk of a palm tree. I watch in disbelieving fascination as the peculiar individual takes it upon himself to place both hands on either side of Jack's face. Pushing the tangled, dark tresses from the frozen pirates face, he tilts his head erratically and smiles slowly, as if finding some hid treasure.  
  
"There you are."  
  
The words seem to strike something in Jack and he snaps his head back violently, causing the man to flinch.  
  
"I don't know you."  
  
The man smiles widely, there's a flicker of madness in his eyes. "Yes you do Jack."  
  
It's only then that I realize what is so familiar about the man. He looked just like Will.  
  
Oh my God, it can't be.  
  
The two men seem to have forgotten my presence and I watch the drama unfolding with a keen eye.  
  
"Is that you Billy?"  
  
"Do you have to ask Jacks? You don't recognize me? I don't look much different I imagine. Unlike you. What have you done to yourself?"  
  
Jack, who seemed to be hovering towards the man he obviously recognized, now jerked back to his place at the palm tree with his eyes wide.  
  
"You aren't real."  
  
The newcomer turns to me again, "The lady here knows I'm real." He extends his hand, which I eye wearily for a second before accepting. "My name is William Turner, or Bill, it's a pleasure to meet you."  
  
"Elizabeth."  
  
Jack stumbles slightly from his still position, looking distinctly like he's on the verge of fainting.  
  
"What are you? You're dead."  
  
"I'm not." There was a sadness that was heart-wrenching in the tone. "I came looking for you."  
  
"Don't say that." The response was half-whispered, sounding desperate and pleading. It sounded nothing like the Jack Sparrow I'd come to know so far.  
  
Will's father steps up close to Jack's face, "I did. I had to find you. To let you know that I was going help. Took me awhile to remember where they left you but I walked all the way here..on the bottom of the ocean! Can you believe that?" A hysterical laugh bubbled up from him at the absurdity of the statement and Jack leaned away, looking frantic.  
  
"You came looking for me?" His voice was soft. "You came looking for me?!" It was getting louder with each word. "You're supposed to be dead!"  
  
"I can't die."  
  
"I didn't think it was true."  
  
"Had you heard?"  
  
Jack began laughing now, mirroring the older man's previous actions, "They told me they sent you to the bottom of the ocean!"  
  
"They did. I walked here. I went looking for you."  
  
"Did you?" There was anger in Jack's voice. "You looked for me...where?"  
  
"Here."  
  
Jack was in the man's face in an instant and I involuntarily gasped at what I assumed was going to be a fight. "Just here? Then what did you do? Just decide to sit down and rest...for ten years?!"  
  
Will's father grabbed at his heart at the words, astonishment in his eyes. He steadied himself on a dying tree stump. "Ten years? Has it been that long?"  
  
Jack grabbed him by the shoulders, "Ten years Billy. You've been sitting here for ten years while I've searched for you. Trying not to believe I'd never see you again. Thinking I'd never see you again when all you had to do was walk the bloody hell off this island and to Tortuga. All these years and I didn't have to.."  
  
"I looked for you Jack! When I got here I couldn't find you. I thought you had done it..I thought you had used that gun Barbossa gave you and floated out in the water. Once I thought you were dead....there wasn't no point to leaving. I just sat, and here I've been sitting til now; feeling guilty that I couldn't save you and wishing to God that I could just die."  
  
Jack stepped back and put his hand over his mouth, looking sick. "Do you know what I've been through...what I've been through all by myself?"  
  
Bill shook his head mutely.  
  
"I told you before that I couldn't live with your life on my head. Wandering around for ten years thinking I'd killed you. Thinking I was the reason you'd never see your son again."  
  
"You weren't the reason Jack. We can't control what happens in our life. It was meant to be."  
  
"What was?"  
  
"We always said we were meant to take care of each other. Well, I took care of you, Jack, in my own way. No one forced me to stand up for you. Did you think I'd leave your side? I wouldn't do that."  
  
The loving expressions had a strange effect on the eccentric pirate. "You promised me you wouldn't!" The severity of the words as he screamed them made me recoil and I involuntarily slipped closer to Will's father, sensing the same kind soul in him as I sensed in his son.  
  
"I'm sorry!"  
  
There was a hushed and strained silence after the admission until Jack spoke, his voice much quieter than before. "That's just like you Billy. Do something stupid and then apologize. Always trying to be a hero."  
  
"That's not such a bad thing. I saved you didn't I? Some people would call that stupid."  
  
Jack frowned and I could see wetness around his dark eyes, "I always thought it was."  
  
"I didn't mean to leave you alone Jacks. I know how you hate to be by yourself."  
  
Jack seemed to have gained some equilibrium as the conversation continued and now cocked his head in a more characteristic manner. "Water under the bridge mate. You're here now, and that makes it okay."  
  
I realized in that instant how young Jack Sparrow was and how much he obviously felt for this man that he knew better than anyone else.  
  
Bill Turner observed me out of the corner of his eye, "I think we've put the young lady on edge with our disturbing reunion."  
  
"That's the whelp's girl."  
  
Bill Turner frowned as I glared at the offending pirate. "Who's the whelp?"  
  
"Young Will Turner. Or William James Turner the Second."  
  
Will's father grasped Jack's shoulder to steady himself. "My son is here?"  
  
"Well, not *here* literally. But he's around."  
  
"Where?"  
  
Jack hesitated, "With our old friend Barbossa."  
  
Bill grasped the younger man's shoulder in a terrible manner, "Why does Barbossa have my son?"  
  
"He needs him to undo the curse. Needs his blood..your blood."  
  
"How did he find him?"  
  
"Jack gave him up." I had spoken before realizing it.  
  
Bill swung his gaze on Jack, "What did you do?"  
  
"I didn't do anything. I had it all planned out. These young lovers here though seem to have a knack for messing up my strategies."  
  
Bill Turner continued to scowl at Jack threateningly.  
  
The pirate captain rubbed his neck, "Bill."  
  
The one word seemed to convey all that needed to be said because the dark expression on Will Sr.'s face melted into an almost guilty expression.  
  
"So you've met my boy."  
  
"Looks just like you."  
  
There seemed to be a private message in the words and Bill Turner smiled sadly, "I thought you'd never be able to meet him. I always wanted him to know you."  
  
"He hates me."  
  
"That's because you're an ass sometimes."  
  
"He thinks I was going to trade his life for the Pearl."  
  
"Then he's a fool."  
  
"Aye. He is your son after all."  
  
Bill Turner smiled wearily and then gazed around. "Well, we need to get off this island to get my son. I would walk off but I'm not sure if I can remember my way, and I might not be back in time."  
  
"There's no food or water you say?" My voice was desperate. I was already getting thirsty.  
  
"There's rum."  
  
Bill frowned, "Jack, I know you're insane and all but this is really no time for nonsense."  
  
"It's not nonsense Bootstrap. The rum runners used this island as a cache. That's how I got off last time; I bartered passage after three days."  
  
Did I just hear that right? "That's it?" I was furious. "That's the great, grand adventure of Jack Sparrow? For three days you lied on the beach, drinking rum?"  
  
Sparrow shrugged as Turner began laughing, "You and rum Jack? Thought you hated the stuff?"  
  
"That was before I had troubles."  
  
The comment sobered up Will's father a bit and apparently had a meaning that I didn't understand. After a long silence, he gestured faintly, "Well, if we find this rum, how in the world is it going to help us get off this island?"  
  
I clapped my hands together, "Oh, I have an idea!" 


End file.
